The coroner’s inquest maintained its status as a popular construction of earlier criminal justice systems even through great scrutiny and disapproval. (Burney 1994) Although the job of the coroner and the coroner’s inquest are no longer significant staples of the American criminal justice system, the fascination with death, bodies, and the post-mortem examination has all but decreased. The process of the post-mortem examination has become a method of entertainment visible in many forms of media including, but not limited to, crime and detective novels and crime-based television shows. The fascination with the management of death is quite alive.
Ian Burney’s article on inquests in the English system portrays a key element of this argument. He examines the process of the inquest along with its challenge and resurgence. His historical context explains one of the continuing truths about death, bodies, and how one uses them to discern information. Burney states that “the inquest was performed before a public audience and an attentive popular press.” (Burney 1) Although these public inqu...
In Walt Harrington’s True Detective, the article centers on the character Victor Smith, better known as V.I., who is a detective who investigates cases of homicide. This article was effective in allowing the readers to understand the perspective of a homicide detective and the many cases they undergo. However, it was difficult to find a connection with this article, because I have no experience with homicide or murder cases apart from what I have seen from the media and TV shows. I was still able to enjoy True Detective, as it described the daily lives of the detectives from Homicide North.
The kings of the middle ages initially created the position of a coroner to investigate the suspicious deaths of people and also to collect the death tax on the deceased’s estate. In the United States, we have two positions that work in the field of death investigating, obviously the coroner and the medical examiner. These positions are widely different in how they run. To be a medical examiner, one must have many years of experience in medical school, and they must be board-approved. However, for a coroner’s position, the people in the state elect a campaigning candidate, and that candidate does not need to have any medical experience. Both of these positions perform autopsies and deal with the suspiciously deceased, however they both have incredibly different requirements. Over the past decade, the necessity of the coroner’s position came into discussion among the field. According to those who wish to kill the job, the coroner’s position does not seem to have sufficient standards for all that the job entails. However, eliminating the coroner jobs from the departments will be tremendously inefficient for all the people involved in that
"TRANSCRIPT OF INQUEST HELD ON THE BODY OF ELIZABETH SHORT."VioletArojo. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
...urvivors and any of these people may taint the process by providing “biased” recollections. The most commonly cited limitation or weakness of psychological autopsies is the lack of any standardized procedures for conducting them (Roberts & Baker, 2009, Psychological Autopsy, Limitations of Psychological Autopsies section, para.2). Although psychologists have developed a standardized guide with twenty-six categories to assist investigators in conducting psychological autopsies, not all of the categories are applicable to every case or are considered by every psychologist conducting a psychological autopsy (Roberts & Baker, 2009, Psychological Autopsy, Limitations of Psychological Autopsies section, para.2). Lacks, Westveer, Dibble and Clemente (2008) question its validity and reliability as the accuracy of equivocal death analysis has not been empirically studied.
Bowers, W, Pierce, G., and McDevitt, J.(1984), Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1964-1982, 333
This quote provides details of why the finality in the decisions regarding death may not accurately represent the justice the accused deserves. It augments the ultimate overarching point made by Scheck and Rust-Tierney that we should not determine
Although the flaws of death penalty are lucid, they are often times over looked by society. Innocuous people have been ruled to death based upon mistaken eyewitness testimonies, mistaken identity, and false confessions through coercion. Former Governor of Illinois George Ryan was a staunch proponent o...
First and foremost, is the case of Peter Reilly. Peter Reilly was convicted of manslaughter at the age of nineteen in 1974 (Lender, 2011). Reilly had found his mother dead in their home (Lender, 2011). Peter Reilly was interrogated without legal council for over an entire day’s t...
Such things are becoming more popular nowadays as displayed in Of Mice and Men and the articles “Death and Dignity” by Bill Briggs, “Mercy Killings: Social Challenges” by Rene Lynch, and lastly “Millionaire admits to
2. Kirsch, Laura. “Diagnosis: DEATH.” Forensic Examiner 15.2 (2006): 52-54. Criminal Justice Periodicals. ProQuest. USF Mears Library, Sioux Falls, SD. 24 Apr. 2008 http://www.proquest.com/
In the face of the universal fact of death, attitudes to the corpse are various and changeable. These attitudes are formed through the practices of treatment of the dead and are embodied in various ways (Parker Pearson 1999, p. 45).
Forensic psychology is an area of psychology that has been rapidly gaining popularity in recent years. Entertainment media’s fascination with the intersection of crime and psychology has fueled the growing interest in the field. According to Jane Tyler Ward, PhD, forensic psychology can be defined as psychology that “emphasizes the application of research and experimentation in other areas of psychology to the legal arena.” Although forensic psychology is popular right now, it was not until 1962 that a court case set the precedent that properly trained psychologists could provide expert testimony (Page 20). Additionally, forensic psychology was not APA (American Psychological Association) certified until 2001 (Page 16). The field of forensic
Instead, state governments should provide more funding and training for county coroner’s so they can do their jobs well with the proper facilities and equipment. Coroners are important elected officials and should not be replaced by appointed medical examiners who are not accountable to the public (“Coroners and Forensic Science”). Electing coroners with little medical experience and allowing them to perform autopsies with no real regulatory oversight is a deeply flawed and outdated method for conducting death investigations. As stated in the article, “autopsies should be performed only by licensed physicians, preferably those specializing in forensic pathology, and in offices run by certified medical examiners (“Coroners and Forensic Science”).” Furthermore, the U.S. should have a federal department that can impose a uniform set of standards for death investigation in every county, instead of the confusing hodgepodge of systems it has
In the following literature review, scholarly and peer-reviewed journals, articles from popular news media, and surveys have been synthesized to contribute to the conversation pertaining to forensics in pop culture in the courtroom and the overall criminal justice system. This conversation has become a growing topic of interest over just the past few years since these crime shows started appearing on the air. The rising popularity of this genre makes this research even more relevant to study to try to bring back justice in the courtroom.
Death is an elementary word harboring many meanings. It is the feeling of being caught in the grip of inevitably. It is a personal realization that you too are mortal. It is the recognition that one's life is changed forever. The shiny image of a once bright world full of promise dulls. Unfortunately, every individual will experience the death of a loved one at least once in their life. No words can soothe the agony of losing a loved one. State legislatures are familiar with this grief and have created either a coroner system or a medical examiner system. A coroner system consists of a coroner whose responsible for identifying the decreased body, alerting the family members or anyone of close relation, signing the death certificate and most importantly determining the cause of death. The tasks seem simple; however, in practicality the tasks are demanding and impossible to fulfill with the coroner system. Due to the absence of scientific knowledge, elective nature and lack of modern resources, the coroner system is exceeding inefficient and should be replaced with the medical examine...